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Searching for Solutions: What St. Louis can learn from New Orleans about affordable housing

How aging pipes, a shrinking population and a disaster transformed this Mississippi River city and what St. Louis could learn from the setbacks and victories.

Mark Maxwell

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Published: 10:07 AM CDT September 28, 2023
Updated: 11:24 PM CDT October 19, 2023

St. Louis city leaders have sought public input as they plan to use federal pandemic relief money and the Rams settlement funds to sow the seeds of a brighter future. 

As a part of our station’s ongoing commitment to stand up for St. Louis, 5 On Your Side dispatched reporters to several cities across the country to go "Searching for Solutions" that delivered the best return on investment.

While no two American cities present a perfect apples-to-apples comparison with St. Louis, the city of New Orleans offered a compilation of eerie similarities: both cities were tied together by the Mississippi River; both cities were founded before the birth of United States and saw early settlers develop the land under French and Spanish rule; both cities have seen drastic declines in population, increases in deferred maintenance, aging infrastructure battered by a climate crisis, and a list of other cultural and industrial connections too long to name. 

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